PowerCycle

08/30 Hello Bolivia! No problems at the border other than the big ass hill you have to ride up to get to immigration. Why do they do that? It seems to happen a lot. They stamped me in for 90 days which should give me plenty of time to tour around. Having a Canadian passport sure came in handy because they charge US passport holders $135 to get in. As a Canuck I didn’t have to pay anything. The exchange rate with the US is 1 U.S. dollar = 7.01 Bolivian bolivianos so I’ll have to get used to bigger bills again. The time zone changed to GMT -4 so I’m back in sync with Miami and Atlanta. No more, “Oh I didn’t realize it’s so late there…” calls. It’ll be nice to have the extra hour of sun too.

I’m staying at the 3 star Hotel Esterlar Del Titicaca. I rode around to 8 or 9 different places trying to find a place with wifi. A couple places even told me no one had wifi. I thought that was a bit of a scam to get me to stay there and sure enough it was. This place is perfect. It’s right on the beach and my window overlooks the lake (and there’s a private balcony!), the room is huge, the door frames are high enough so I won’t crack my head on them, there’s cable TV (not that I care), the shower is nice and hot and yes, there’s wifi. All this for only $11.50 a night. I’ll be here 2 nights before heading out.

Copacabana (pop. 6000) is a bit of a touristy place but it doesn’t seem over done like a couple places in Peru. For example, I haven’t seen any traditionally dressed women walking around with baby llamas so gringos can take their picture. There are quite a few gringos walking around, and sadly I think I spotted a couple hippies. I’ll do the walking tour tomorrow and check everything out.

GPX track

08/29 It’s not especially hilly around here but the couple climbs yesterday and today had me sucking air like it was my first week riding. My legs are doing OK but I’m having a hell of a time getting enough oxygen. I can’t wait until I’m used to this altitude again. In the meantime I’m going to look for an oxygen tank I can strap to the back of my bike.

Last night I stayed in the town of Chucuito at the Albergue Las Cabañas. They let you camp on the grounds for S10 but there were a bunch of other people camping so I just got a room. The room was great and it even had a fireplace (that I didn’t use–don’t want to encourage tree chopping).

Riding next to the lake has been a blast. It is the largest lake in South America and the wind blowing in from the south east has lot’s of time to pick up speed and hit me right in the face. The north end of the lake was very low and people are using the exposed bed along the shore for agriculture. The lake is actually at its lowest level since 1949 due to a shortened rainy season and because the glaciers feeding the tributaries are all melting. The road isn’t the best to ride on. No shoulder and it can get a little rough in places. Traffic is kind of heavy too and everyone loves blasting their horn when they pass. They are pretty good about moving over so no close calls or anything.

Lake Titicaca has plenty of interesting things going on. For starters did you know it’s the place where the world was created from? True story. The Uros, a pre-Incan people, live on 42 floating islands made of reeds. The original purpose of the islands was defensive, and they could be moved if a threat arose. The city of Puno has tours to the islands but I read that the ones they take you to are over-touristy so there’s no big draw for me. There are actual dirt/rock islands that you can visit but the only one that sounded cool was Amantani Island because there are no dogs allowed. The Bolivian Navy has a total of 173 vessels, mostly stationed on Lake Titicaca since the loss of its coast to Chile during the War of the Pacific in 1879.

If you are so inclined I posted my favorite pictures from Peru on Flickr.

Tomorrow Bolivia.

GPX track

08/27 After a very gradual climb I reached the pass at Abra la Raya (14,665 ft) and headed down to the Altiplano. The pass was the most touristy one I’ve seen on my entire trip. The mountain passes I’ve gone over up until now were cold, desolate places. Even signs showing the altitude are rare. Not this one though. Being the highest point between the mega-tourist destination Cusco and Lake Titicaca, also a huge tourist destination, the locals (presumably) set up a large number of tables with crafts of all sorts for sale. When I got there 3 tourist buses had stopped so I whizzed right by. Not that I would have bought crafts but a snack would have been nice–I just wasn’t in the mood to deal with a gringo swarm. The mountains on the left side of the pass were covered in snow and looked quite stunning.

I stopped for the night in Santa Rosa where I went looking for a place to stay. It wasn’t easy. There are 5 hospedajes in the very small town. I knocked on the door for #1, heard a guy inside, waited a minute and then left when no one opened the door. #2 had a small, yappy dog in the back so I looked at the room but left because of the dog. #3 and #4 didn’t have rooms available (not sure why). I settled on #5 which for S20 was a bit of a rip-off. The room was barely big enough to hold the bed and the suicide shower downstairs was broken.

The next night I stayed in Pucara. Found a great place with a well-signed tourist shop in front for S20. The room has a (terrible) warm shower but there’s plenty of space. There are even hooks on the wall to hang clothes, somewhat of a rarity. The town is small but it has quite a bit of character. A lot of the houses have ceramic bulls on the roofs to bring good luck. There is a pre-Inca site nearby, Kalasaya, along with a little museum in town but I’m in a weird anti-ruins phase right now so I’m skipping it.

The Altiplano, the area I’m riding in now, is the 2nd most extensive area of high plateau on Earth, occupying parts of Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and northern Peru. The average height is 12,300 feet but I have no idea what that means as far as “hilly” areas on the plateau. So far the road has been very flat and there’s plenty of room for it to wind around the few hills. It’s usually very dry, cool, windy (from the north thankfully) and sunny. The temperature at night can drop down well below freezing during winter (June until August).

I stocked up on coca leaves and coca candy in Sicuani to help with the altitude but they taste nasty and I hate getting green chunks of it stuck in my teeth. They aren’t so bad as a tea so I’ve been guzzling that down. I think in another few days I should be used to being up this high and the couple headaches I’ve had will go away.

Tonight I’m in the “armpit” of Peru, Juliaca (pop. 225,146). At least that’s what Lonely Planet calls it. Not sure what they are talking about–it’s not that bad. Sure the outskirts are dirty but the outskirts of most cities are. Tomorrow I head toward the city of Puno and Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. I should be in Bolivia by the middle of next week.

GPX track

Number #5 just did their thing up Calle 2 de Mayo right below my window. The view of the road is kind of obstructed by power lines so the pictures aren’t great. The costumes have been quite colorful and the dancing ladies looked very nice.

My stomach is back to normal so I’ll be heading out tomorrow. Sleeping pad #2 (the Thermarest) and the mosquito net are sitting by the door. They may not be coming with me tomorrow. Actually, having just written that, maybe I’ll bring them and see if I can’t find a better home for them with a family outside the city.

Update #1 OK it looks like I was wrong. There are only 2 parades. One is a high school band thing and the other is some kind of religious thing. They just keep making loops through the city so it seems like there have been 5.

Update #2 The craziest thing just happened! The religious procession was going by but having seen it twice already, I stayed in bed. Then I hear this chanting going on so I stood up in front of the window and pulled back the curtains. Standing on the street below me, hands held in front of them, were hundreds of people praying. They were all looking up right at me when I opened the curtains! I felt like the Pope! The window was open so I called down to them, “Be at peace my children!” but it probably didn’t translate right. OK, the part about calling down to them I made up but the rest is true.